Silhouettes tutorials
Over at my Ask the Maker thread I was asked by applepips16 and john_scorpy about the silhouettes I've done in my recent batches, so I thought I'd combine the answers into one post.
The icons in question:
I used different methods between the first and the last three :) I use Photoshop CS4, but the steps are fairly straightforward and should be translatable.
Roland and the Dark Tower silhouette
This icon was actually super simple to make, the biggest reason being that the graphic novel art lent itself well with lots of contrast and pops of color. But in case my method gives anyone new ideas with working with graphics, I'll go through the process I went through to make the icon.
Those are my base images. Young Roland has good contrast and great shadow work here, and while Roland in front of the Tower is a bit muted, the colors are great.
As a general rule, when I'm going for silhouettes, I automatically try the Lighten layer blending mode. Lighten is great for knocking out chunks of an image and giving a solid base color for the icon. I (ab)used it a lot during the first side quest for theiconquest. *cough*
One
I started with the first image, pasting the image on a 100x100 canvas and, using Free Transform, resized and moved it around until I had a good crop. Initially I wanted both guns to be in the icon, but I thought it looked a bit funny out of context. I dropped the saturation using Curves for the icon, but I tried replicating using a Vibrance layer and it looks identical at 0, -34.
I also ran the Sharpen filter on this layer to make the line art crisper.
Two
I set the layer to Lighten, and added the second image underneath that top image. I moved it around some--I wanted Roland in the second image to be seen, of course, but did not want to eagle there as it is distracting. I ended up with this:
(added border to show the empty space)
Three
I also fiddled with the color balance a bit, but as usual I did it right on the layer. Replicating it using a color balance adjustment layer, I have:
Shadows (CMY): -58, 0, +56
Midtones (CMY): +45, 0, -46
Highlights (CMY): +12, 0, -8
I duplicated that color-balanced layer, and set the duplicate to Soft Light, to give it a more glowy look.
Four
Now, since we have that blank space to the side, I duplicated both "background" layers and flipped them horizontally in order to mirror the landscape at the other side and create a seamless background. (I actually used a Smart Object for this, but it's not really that needed.)
And that's it! :)
These are my layers:
LOTR action silhouettes
The method I used to do these silhouettes are also quite easy, and they are similar across the three icons.
One
Can't seem to find the particular screencaps I used, but I basically use a mix of the Polygonal Lasso tool and the Quick Selection tool to cut my subjects out of the background on the full cap. I usually prefer the Polygonal Lasso, as Quick Selection sometimes leaves me with weird edges. For example:
I wasn't too fussed with the outlines/hair/etc since I knew I was going to shrink the subjects a lot when I'm done. That said, I had a hard time figuring out how to crop these Nazul:
*headdesk*
Two
I pasted the subjects on to my canvas and fiddled around with what would be a nice color for their background. I keep the full crop on a hidden layer just in case I need it later, and just fiddled around with Free Transform until I'm happy with the crop and positioning.
I may have run them across some on-layer color balances and curves. Sorry!
Three
This next step varied across the three. I duplicated the Aragorn and Nazgul layers and set those to Soft Light, and I duplicated the Arwen/Frodo layer twice and set those to Screen and Soft Light.
Four
Going back to the subject layers, I duplicated each, and moved it below the main subject layer. And then ran the Motion Blur filter on this lower layer, at a 0° angle and distance of 11px (it may have been 10px).
Then I adjusted the opacities accordingly so that it's not too dark and won't detract from the focus on the subject. (Aragorn's at 68%, Nazgul at 71%, Arwen/Frodo at 56%.)
Five
Now, they look a little "lost" in that motion blur. I wanted them to pop out some more. So I went back to the subject layer, duplicated those, and moved it below the main subject layer but on top of the motion blurred layer.
Then I opened up the Blending Options panel, and enabled Color Overlay:
Blend Mode: Normal
Color: #ffffff
Opacity: 100%
(For the Nazgul icon, I wanted a blood-red color for them, so the color setting was set to #990000.)
I then moved this layer a little to the right and above of the original subject layer, and lowered the opacity down a bit, around 50% thereabouts.
Six
The background and the text varies after this.
For Aragorn, I took the original cap and placed it below all the layers so far but above the background, and set it to Soft Light. Once again I did a couple curves in order to heighten the contrast a bit while it's set to soft layer on a light background.
For the Nazgul, it was just the addition of the "Pursuit" text. I placed it underneath all the layers, but since my red silhouette layer is set to a lower opacity, the text still bled through the silhouette and it was a bit noticeable. So I just added a layer mask and removed the offending areas:
For Arwen and Frodo, I added a screencap of the Nazgul fleeing from the river, set it to Soft Light, and masked away the bottom portion with a soft brush. And then just added the text in #229dca and at 54% opacity.
And that's it!
These are my layers:
(Someday I will make nicely-named layers.
Ask The Maker || My Thread
The icons in question:
I used different methods between the first and the last three :) I use Photoshop CS4, but the steps are fairly straightforward and should be translatable.
Roland and the Dark Tower silhouette
This icon was actually super simple to make, the biggest reason being that the graphic novel art lent itself well with lots of contrast and pops of color. But in case my method gives anyone new ideas with working with graphics, I'll go through the process I went through to make the icon.
Those are my base images. Young Roland has good contrast and great shadow work here, and while Roland in front of the Tower is a bit muted, the colors are great.
As a general rule, when I'm going for silhouettes, I automatically try the Lighten layer blending mode. Lighten is great for knocking out chunks of an image and giving a solid base color for the icon. I (ab)used it a lot during the first side quest for theiconquest. *cough*
One
I started with the first image, pasting the image on a 100x100 canvas and, using Free Transform, resized and moved it around until I had a good crop. Initially I wanted both guns to be in the icon, but I thought it looked a bit funny out of context. I dropped the saturation using Curves for the icon, but I tried replicating using a Vibrance layer and it looks identical at 0, -34.
I also ran the Sharpen filter on this layer to make the line art crisper.
Two
I set the layer to Lighten, and added the second image underneath that top image. I moved it around some--I wanted Roland in the second image to be seen, of course, but did not want to eagle there as it is distracting. I ended up with this:
(added border to show the empty space)
Three
I also fiddled with the color balance a bit, but as usual I did it right on the layer. Replicating it using a color balance adjustment layer, I have:
Shadows (CMY): -58, 0, +56
Midtones (CMY): +45, 0, -46
Highlights (CMY): +12, 0, -8
I duplicated that color-balanced layer, and set the duplicate to Soft Light, to give it a more glowy look.
Four
Now, since we have that blank space to the side, I duplicated both "background" layers and flipped them horizontally in order to mirror the landscape at the other side and create a seamless background. (I actually used a Smart Object for this, but it's not really that needed.)
And that's it! :)
These are my layers:
LOTR action silhouettes
The method I used to do these silhouettes are also quite easy, and they are similar across the three icons.
One
Can't seem to find the particular screencaps I used, but I basically use a mix of the Polygonal Lasso tool and the Quick Selection tool to cut my subjects out of the background on the full cap. I usually prefer the Polygonal Lasso, as Quick Selection sometimes leaves me with weird edges. For example:
I wasn't too fussed with the outlines/hair/etc since I knew I was going to shrink the subjects a lot when I'm done. That said, I had a hard time figuring out how to crop these Nazul:
*headdesk*
Two
I pasted the subjects on to my canvas and fiddled around with what would be a nice color for their background. I keep the full crop on a hidden layer just in case I need it later, and just fiddled around with Free Transform until I'm happy with the crop and positioning.
I may have run them across some on-layer color balances and curves. Sorry!
Three
This next step varied across the three. I duplicated the Aragorn and Nazgul layers and set those to Soft Light, and I duplicated the Arwen/Frodo layer twice and set those to Screen and Soft Light.
Four
Going back to the subject layers, I duplicated each, and moved it below the main subject layer. And then ran the Motion Blur filter on this lower layer, at a 0° angle and distance of 11px (it may have been 10px).
Then I adjusted the opacities accordingly so that it's not too dark and won't detract from the focus on the subject. (Aragorn's at 68%, Nazgul at 71%, Arwen/Frodo at 56%.)
Five
Now, they look a little "lost" in that motion blur. I wanted them to pop out some more. So I went back to the subject layer, duplicated those, and moved it below the main subject layer but on top of the motion blurred layer.
Then I opened up the Blending Options panel, and enabled Color Overlay:
Blend Mode: Normal
Color: #ffffff
Opacity: 100%
(For the Nazgul icon, I wanted a blood-red color for them, so the color setting was set to #990000.)
I then moved this layer a little to the right and above of the original subject layer, and lowered the opacity down a bit, around 50% thereabouts.
Six
The background and the text varies after this.
For Aragorn, I took the original cap and placed it below all the layers so far but above the background, and set it to Soft Light. Once again I did a couple curves in order to heighten the contrast a bit while it's set to soft layer on a light background.
For the Nazgul, it was just the addition of the "Pursuit" text. I placed it underneath all the layers, but since my red silhouette layer is set to a lower opacity, the text still bled through the silhouette and it was a bit noticeable. So I just added a layer mask and removed the offending areas:
For Arwen and Frodo, I added a screencap of the Nazgul fleeing from the river, set it to Soft Light, and masked away the bottom portion with a soft brush. And then just added the text in #229dca and at 54% opacity.
And that's it!
These are my layers:
(Someday I will make nicely-named layers.
Ask The Maker || My Thread